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Nearly 4,000 people have signed a petition urging the National Park Service to let feral horses remain at Theodore Roosevelt National Park/Kurt Repanshek file

An effort to convince the National Park Service that feral horses are an integral part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures to support a North Dakota Legislature resolution supporting the equines.

The Park Service is working to update its livestock management plan and has proposed removing a small number of longhorn cattle and about 200 feral horses from the park located in western North Dakota. It's been a controversial proposal that generated nearly 20,000 comments during the initial "scoping period" the Park Service held to solicit public thoughts on whether the agency should continue to manage the horses and cattle or remove them from the park.

The park hasn't updated its horse management plan since 1978, and its cattle management plan dates to 1970. At issue is whether there should be any change in how the livestock are managed, whether the horses that roam the South Unit and the cattle in the North Unit should be removed as soon as possible, or whether the cattle should be removed and the horse herd reduced in number to a number of "fully contracepted horses" that would be allowed to live out their lives in the park.

The proposal open for comment does not contain a preferred alternative, but it does point out the negative impacts the horses have on the landscape and native species such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, meadowlarks and sharp-tailed grouse, among others.

While the deadline for public comments initially was in October, it has been extended until late this month.

The Change.org petition launched by Eileen Norton and Jamie Baldanza in favor of keeping the horses in the park has been signed by more than 3,780 people as of mid-day Tuesday.

"This is an opportunity for people from around the United States and the globe to show their support of SCR 4014. You stand with the State of North Dakota in its fight to preserve the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park," reads the introduction to the petition. "We, the undersigned, passionately believe in the preservation and protection of the iconic wild horses that have roamed freely in the breathtaking landscapes of Theodore Roosevelt National Park for generations. They are an integral part of the park's natural and cultural heritage, and we firmly stand in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 4014."

The Senate Resolution calls on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams to see that the horses are allowed to remain in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

"[W]hile not native to Theodore Roosevelt National Park originally, the longhorns and wild horse herds, present in the era of Theodore Roosevelt, have been an integral part of the recent history of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and should therefore be preserved in some form for the benefit of the public narrative," reads a portion of the resolution. "[T]he Sixty-eighth Legislative Assembly urges the National Park Service to preserve the longhorn steers and wild horses residing within Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the United States Congress to assist with preserving the historic herds."

While those who want horses to remain in the park view them as vestiges of the West that Roosevelt explored in the late 19th century, the Park Service has pointed out that genetic testing "indicates that the horses in the Park today show no clear ancestral relationship to any one breed, but have the strongest genetic influence from draft breeds and not horses of Spanish origin."

Regarding the longhorn cattle that roam the park's North Unit, the Park Service has pointed out that cattle contract Mycoplasma bovis, a bacterial disease that can be deadly to bison, and that's one reason that would justify their removal.